Honningsvag Yesterday I arrived in the rain. It was a beautiful sunny day with clouds chasing each other and relatively mild temperatures, about 15 degrees. All good, until they started fighting and probably some clouds are snug on the edge of the sky became black and created a traffic jam. Within half an hour the light has changed the quality and intensity, has arisen a kind of twilight pale and shadowy. It began to rain, luckily only in the last hour of my ride, and has not stopped since. Today is June 27, Sunday. On this night, since I arrived, I never used the blackout curtains at the window. I'm so tired after eight hours of cycling, I could even sleep in a solarium. So if I open my eyes at night, peep out the window and I see the miracle of light at any time. Tonight I saw the light and rain, unbroken. Now I'm half past seven, and put out his nose still pouring rain, fog, and wind strong enough to move my feet (gusts to 70 km per hour, read the weather), cold (5-6 degrees). I am convinced of the need to make the final 35 km that separate me from Nordkapp by bus. At the bus stop here in Honningsvag, the wet plaster has been designed with the game in the world, must be exciting for a child, playing in the world on the roof of the world.
look like the five o'clock of a rainy winter, however, are half past eight in the morning, it's me on the bus and a Japanese. Glue the face to the glass of the window, you can see the Arctic vegetation - the usual mosses and lichens, they always - alternating with stony, plates of snow more often; seeing landscapes so harsh, it is understandable that from 15 August onwards no longer be guaranteed access to head north. The road climbs over hills covered with nothing, no trees, no animals, no man around. Arrive in Cape North, get off the bus in a desolate square, I pull out the bike from the boot of the bus. I feel a bit 'lost, but excited, smiling at the Japanese in the rain, he smiles at me.
E'un'emozione strong. No matter the weather today, for me. North Cape is a place, of course, first and foremost. But it is also an idea, which is located in the head north, a rough sense of things, a great beauty sometimes difficult to understand and interpret, perhaps like life itself. Seven years ago I wrote a story, a guy that starts to head north after being joined by his wife. I had forgotten, until a few days before leaving.; Just to emphasize the fact that for a long time I head north nela head buzzing. I leave the story at the end of the post.
In the midst of this rain and mist I see the welcome center, a horrible place with a café, restaurant, replete with souvenir caps and sweaters and Nordkapp. Fortunately, there were few people. I go out towards the sea, beyond the windows is the monument sign this place, a huge world penetrates Earth's axis tilted by 26 degrees. I do not mind, in the final tilt of the Earth, it is worth underlining that we have both: the seasons, the changing light throughout the year, including day and polar night. Later still, a fenced yard and beyond, the nothing, the fog. There are now invisible, sheer cliffs ranging up to three hundred meters to the sea. Beyond this sea, only sea and ice sheets. The 71 degrees of latitude, which are difficult to cross - unless you visit the islands of Svalbard, who knows ... - Give the sense of an unattainable when we approached, the "more beyond "Montale that becomes a little more at your fingertips. look at the fog, and I think in light of these days. I've seen so many. When it is filtered by clouds, you find that light always on, perhaps because they both rising from the horizon you can not forget her presence, even at midday, and thus, being at eye level, glare. But it does not hurt, I never used sunglasses here. Towards midnight - I have noticed in other days - the sun is at the lowest point on the horizon (north! where we were taught that there is no sun) and gives the illusion of a sunset - very long - that there will be. Then back, going east. There is here, too north magnetic north is the same, in a sense, able to generate the phenomenon of the aurora borealis. While Not being able to attend, I have seen in the beautiful High Museum - a few days after arriving in North Cape - Other videos related to the auroras. They are fantastic. The lights that play, change, chase each other, as desired, in the long nights of winter, to reaffirm the light on the dark, so dramatic. Or dialogue, with the darkness. All is great, here, everything is paradoxical. You see things you do not see elsewhere. The snow in the plains of June, the sun never sets and which also passes to the north, the aurora borealis. See the men who live in these parts, with six months of icy roads, snow, and you wonder possible. The people of Sami (or Lapp) who has lived here 9000 years, speaks of light as a father (the sun) that interact with the earth (the mother) gives life. The light interacts with the dark, grows at the expense of the darkness itself, the reverse process begins in September. All the same at the equator, all different, depending on the time of the year here. A gym of light and darkness, a struggle and an endless dialogue. It 's all for today.
Below I put the story of which I spoke.
The trip was
long been thought that a similar project now, even despite himself, he could make that trip. In fact one would have expected a different mood than eve of departure, that he appreciated the preparations and the starting point almost as much as the journey itself. for him were strange days, marked by an event that marked a before and after: his wife who has to speak - but he does it every day, which means? - Said to be grown inside, he realized that he's not enough anymore, he wants to make new experiences, can not breathe, and so on bla-bla-bla. With the passing of minutes into the conversation he realized that his approval rating was about to reach the deepest abysses, his sense of self-esteem was suffering a severe stroke and as he watched his wife's mouth move and articulate sounds that his bark could no longer translate as words, should have realized that from that time, only to look after himself. It suddenly becomes a single entity, and you think back to even. It was very strange after that, for many years, even the most trivial things the way down her checklist spoke of the constant presence of her: - But these cookies with almonds will appeal to you? - Or - I think it goes well Saturday night for dinner at your house, Paul, but I'll give you a confirmation in half an hour, ok? - A number of mechanisms in his mind suddenly became useless, obsolete, were swept away in a: - I have to talk - and left a great void, this was his first consideration. The train was the ideal: it gave him the opportunity to look out and look inside, to make short or long legs and get more or less where he wanted. Despite the chaos and vicissitudes of the latest mental dictated by these profound changes, he had clearly in mind the goal. Go north, north to reach the par excellence: the North Cape. With the idea that he had been a child of the cardinal points, was left to him in the head that is on the north, the south back to the west and east left to right, and look forward to his program was vague. Moreover, always thinking many years ago at the map hanging on the wall of his classroom, I realized that North is up, south is down, and he now wanted to go back, wanted to tackle the steep climb and then look at things from above, he was then in mind that in places like Oceania perhaps held the map upside down, and its securities were shaken, but only for a moment: it took up thinking that he was not among the kangaroos, and therefore were not his business. The train contained the usual plethora of students, workers, tourists. It was quite crowded despite the fact that we are telling to go back to the limbo of a Wednesday any period of late spring after Easter in which half of the conversations you hear around its theme: "The period of leave that you will do this summer The goal and what do you expect to go; describe the strategies you are implementing at this time to reduce the layer of obesity will not want to show the sea that separates you from happiness. " Look for a place in front of a beautiful girl , just to have a living picture in front of him he could be a source of enjoyment, such as the Uffizi put before the birth of Venus and contemplate, contemplation only in rare cases could be even a minimal interaction. But it also happened, to his great sorry, could not find a place like this: either for lack of subject matter, or because the situation would be too obvious and unequivocal, and maybe half empty train him in front of a her. But that day, he found a good location: in one of the cars for non-smokers there was a nice girl, absorbed in reading a small volume, which left two vacancies in front of him, okay, not to be a hindrance to her legs, among other things, long and well-made, covered in part by a tubular skirt dark blue, he could sit near the window with traditional diagonal layout. was about to settle down on the luggage is not very carefully prepared the day before, when he piled his stuff, he had felt the fear - almost certain - to forget something, he hoped at least that was something of vital importance . Had asked his ex-wife allowed to leave her belongings there for some time, and packed the essentials in a backpack and hiking a leather suitcase, which gave importance, since they contradict each other as intended use - the 'for an adventure and the other from being updated - the very nature of improvisation that covered the trip. He seemed healthy, however, being able to leave his former home in many of his objects, perhaps the trip would have understood the futility of many of them and would not fight later for possession of the books without the personal stamp, or straw chair of the study, who knows .. But in the meantime had been immobilized there, standing with his hands resting on the suitcase, with my gaze fixed beyond the window, as if trying to catch a detail that he had escaped. The jolt of the train that is moving him back to order, and sitting down on the girl made a quick zoom, ever devoted to reading, not bad, he thought, despite the air excessively polite, kind secretary head: smooth hair, blacks with blue reflections, soft features, big eyes, blue, full lips, beautiful breasts highlighted by tight knit, and the air absorbed in the book that gave a pleasant touch of seriousness. He hoped that would not fall to the next station, after all, just wanted to give a peek from time to time, not to jump on! The sensation of the moving train was nice for him at that moment, maybe he wanted something moved inside, he could refurbish, revitalize the stagnant air in recent days suffered willingly shocks, arising from changes buffeting binary abandoning his entire body like a reed in the wind. It was very hot, it was early morning and the progression of light would have given him a sense of progression of the journey, at least in the first stage. The low sun gave a mixture of soft colors, the speed gave him the opportunity to dwell only on distant objects look .. A wave of well-being surprised him: he wanted to freeze that moment, that sense of vagueness and approximation, anything could happen from that moment on, and suddenly realized that the journey to head north would last a lifetime. . 
